griff1998 wrote:
If you see it that way, Dave - fine.
I'm just irritated by the widespread celebrations to "a route to $uperleague" which seems to me to be a more difficult one than we had before.
Not sure it is more difficult that what we have had the last 6 years, in that at worst the new system will give us 1 SL team versus 1 Championship team (4v5) for the final SL place the following year (and it is possible to be in the top 3 and qualify without the playoff game). I don't see that being harder than qualifying for SL via the licensing route (when it appears as an outsider teh SL clubs want to keep a closed shop). To get to the point of being the championship club that gets to that one game playoff will be hard and with the 2 ex-SL teams joining the championship it will be harder still for the current teams in our league, however Sheffield have made and won the equivalent GF game in the last 2 years so why not again in 2015? And come the start of the 2015 season well all start on zero points with everything to play for.
Do I like the 2x12 into 3x8, you know I don't. It is too hard to manage for a whole raft of reasons, and therefore I personally would have preferred 2x12 with a 1 up 1 down. However if this had been adopted I think it would have still been as hard to get into SL as the new 2x12 -> 3x8 for the current championship teams, given this would still mean getting past the relegated SL teams, and as we have seen in the past (pre licensing) this is hard to achieve.
At least the new system will allow a route via P&R that is decided on the pitch (assuming minimum criteria is meet), which the previous licensing system didn't.
Key to all of this is how the funding is managed, it the current discrepancy of virtually 10 to 1 (SL to Championship) is kept it is always going to be virtually impossible to break into SL. And it appears from the outside that this is the hardest question for the SL clubs to agree on.
